Climate change endorsers miss the larger picture

Page A6 of the March 12 Times-News has Hawaii’s Sen. Brian Schatz saying, “Climate change is real.” This guy really has a knack for stating the obvious. There are no senators that would disagree with him, though the Senate Climate Action Task Force (SCAT Force) has accused many of being “climate change deniers.” Yes, some may not buy into the idea of pending catastrophic, anthropogenic global warming but no one denies climate change. So please, SCAT Force, stop with the dishonest semantics.

Skeptics have a problem with the following premises of the Global Climate Change, nee Warming movement: 1. Global temperatures have been accurately and precisely measured over thousands of years, 2. Fossil fuel use has significantly changed the climate and 3. Warming is all bad.

Measuring global mean temperature is done primarily by land-based temperature stations, many of which are rated “poor” in reliability. These stations have been placed near parking lots, apartments, near grills and overgrown with brush. Sea-based stations are fewer and even less reliable. NOAA and NASA liberally sprinkle various forms of the word “anomaly” throughout their global temperature reports.

The amount of human-produced greenhouse gasses emitted from the combustion of fossil fuels since Adam pales in comparison to a few good volcanic eruptions. Sadly, the “green energy” solutions are worse for the environment than drilling for gas/oil. Producing “made in China” solar panels creates nasty toxins. Alamance County has no way to recycle the mercury in CFL bulbs. The piers upon which offshore windmills sit serve as natural reefs, attracting algae, barnacles, fish and, naturally, sea-birds. Ironically, the Sierra Club supports these “gull-otines” which, incidentally, create astonishingly little power for their astronomical cost.

Warming is fun! Sure, some areas will become uninhabitable, but glaciers will also retreat from rich farm land, there will be fewer deaths and more biodiversity. Remember the mini-ice age around the 15th century was also known as the Dark Ages, a time of death and pestilence. So, if you are a bit skeptical of a movement started in 1998 by the eccentric politician Al Gore, that makes two of us.